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Earthflight, A Nature Special Presentation “Flying High” at 7pm
A behind-the-scenes look at how Earthflight was made, including the extraordinary relationships between people and birds. Microlights, paragliders, drones, and camera-carrying birds and much more helped along the way.

Nova The Incredible Journey Of The Butterflies at 8:30 pm
Every year, 100 million monarch butterflies set off on an incredible journey across North America. These beautiful creatures fly 2,000 miles to reach their remote destination: a tiny area high in the mountains of Mexico. Yet scientists are still puzzling over how the butterflies achieve this tremendous feat of endurance – and how, year after year, the monarchs navigate with such hair’s-breadth precision. NOVA flies along with the monarchs, visiting the spectacular locations they call home and meeting the dangers they encounter along the way. As this program reveals, the monarch is a scientific marvel locked in an inspiring struggle for survival.

Ecologist Chris Morgan (Bears of the Last Frontier) travels to the jungles of Northern Sumatra to document the work being done to save its population of wild orangutans, which is quickly dwindling due to deforestation. Morgan spends time with orphaned orangs at rehabilitation centers observing the process of teaching them the survival skills they’ll need to be released back into the wild. But to truly understand the complexity of a wild orangutan society and the skills the orangs would have learned from their mothers in the wild, Morgan travels to a remote patch of forest also in Northern Sumatra, a peat swamp forest known as Suaq Balimbing. Suaq is in a protected area and part of a World Heritage Site. Working with a team of experienced researchers, he becomes completely immersed in this unique social band of wild orangs who use tools, share food, forage together, and create their own distinct culture. For the first time, advanced cameras are used to follow the orangs throughout the canopy to provide an intimate, clear picture of how these arboreal apes spend their days and nights and interact with one another.

The soaring dome of Hagia Sophia dominates Istanbul’s skyline. Whether serving as Christian church, Islamic mosque, or secular museum, this magnificent building has inspired reverence and awe. For eight hundred years, it was the largest enclosed building in the world; the Statue of Liberty can fit beneath its dome with room to spare. How has it survived its location on one of the world’s most active seismic faults, which has inflicted a dozen devastating earthquakes since it was built in 537 AD? As Istanbul braces for the next big quake, a team of architects and engineers is urgently investigating Hagia Sophia’s seismic secrets. NOVA follows the team’s discoveries as they examine the building’s unique structure and other ingenious design strategies that have insured the dome’s survival. At the climax to the show, the engineers build a massive 8-ton model of the building’s core structure, place it on a motorized shake table and hit it with a series of simulated quakes, pushing it collapse -a fate that the team is determined to avoid in the real world. The Unshakeable Hagia Sophia is a detective story that reveals how this architectural wonder has proven so resilient for so long, and how it came to serve as a proud expression for the great civilizations that adopted it as a symbol.

Sanjayan explores humankind’s relationship with the Earth’s most important resource: water. Unraveling dramatic connections between fresh water and the health of the planet, he uncovers spectacular wildlife stories that center on managing the natural pulse of the planet’s water. The episode includes a kayak journey that follows the Colorado River to the sea; the elephants and people at the singing wells of Kenya; the surprising connection between AIDS and a small fish in Lake Malawi; and a look at how hunters in America saved one of the greatest gatherings of birds on the continent.

Sculptors and archaeologists team up in an attempt to solve the mysteries of the lost city of Petra. Plus, a look at how owls’ keen senses work and an investigation of Earth’s oceans and the threats they face on the Feb. 18 Science Night.

For centuries, owls have been fascinating hallmarks of children’s stories and folk tales the world over. What actually makes owls so special? Using the camera technology, computer graphics, x-rays and ultra-microscopes available in the modern world, take a new look at owls in more detail than ever before. The real stories behind how they hunt, how their vision and hearing work, and how they fly so silently are influencing 21st-century technology and design, from high-tech aircraft and submarines to innovative hearing aids.

More than two thousand years ago, the thriving city of Petra rose up in the bone-dry desert of what is now Jordan. An oasis of culture and abundance, the city was built by wealthy merchants whose camel caravans transported incense and spices across hundreds of miles from the Arabian Gulf. They carved spectacular temple-tombs into its soaring cliffs, raised a monumental Great Temple at its heart, and devised an ingenious system that channeled water to vineyards, bathhouses, fountains, and pools. But following a catastrophic earthquake and a slump in its desert trade routes, Petra’s unique culture faded and was lost to most of the world for nearly a thousand years. Now, in a daring experiment, an archaeologist and sculptors team up to carve an iconic temple-tomb to find out how the ancient people of Petra built their city of stone. And beyond Petra’s city of the dead, scientists using remote sensors and hydraulic flumes discover a city of the living-complete with a water system that not only supplied 30,000 people with enough to drink, but also filled bathhouses, fountains, and pools with such abundance that some scholars believe this desert metropolis may have been the Las Vegas of the ancient world. The race is on to discover how these nomads created this oasis of culture in one of the harshest climates on earth, and ultimately, why Petra disappeared.

Starting on the most pristine reef on Earth, home to more predators than prey, Sanjayan draws on his own ocean experiences to reveal a vibrant community of scientists, engineers and fishermen who are providing solutions that can help restore the oceans in astonishing ways. He is aware of the vast scale of the threat to our oceans, but standing in the water playing midwife to a large lemon shark is just one of the moments that give him hope that we can turn around our influence on the most important habitat on Earth.

Nature takes a look at some of the animal kingdom’s most unlikely friendships, NOVA recreates the ancient techniques of the Roman Colosseum and Earth A New Wild ventures deep into the world’s forests for the Feb. 11 Science Night.

A tiger cub with no mother in sight. A baby hippo. An abandoned meerkat pup. Without nurturing, these infants face certain death. Enter stories of the most unlikely cross-species relationships imaginable: a chimp bottle-feeding a tiger cub; a giant tortoise snuggling a baby hippo; a black crow parenting a meerkat. Aberrations of nature? Instincts gone awry? Does this kind of bonding form only when animals are removed from their natural environments? Or are they evidence of a broad array of emotions among animals? This film will look at these remarkable relationships firsthand, and through caregivers, biologists and animal behaviorists, explore what they suggest about the nature of animal emotions.

The Colosseum is a monument to Roman imperial power and cruelty. Its graceful lines and harmonious proportions concealed a highly efficient design and advanced construction methods that made hundreds of arches out of 100,000 tons of stone. In its elliptical arena, tens of thousands of gladiators, slaves, prisoners and wild animals met their deaths. Ancient texts report lions and elephants emerging from beneath the floor, as if by magic, to ravage gladiators and people condemned to death. Then, just as quickly, the Colosseum could be flooded with so much water that ships could engage in sea battles. Could these legends be true? Now, with access to one of the world’s most protected world heritage sites, archaeologists and engineers team up to re-create ancient Roman techniques to build a 25-foot lifting machine and trap-door system capable of releasing a wolf into the Colosseum’s arena for the first time in 1,500 years.

Journey deep into the great forests of Earth for a new way of looking at these wild places and the animals that live there. Sanjayan travels into an uncharted area of the Amazon that scientists believe is the most bio-diverse place on Earth. From there he follows unique animal behavior in Alaska’s Great Bear Rainforest and then meets the farmers in Portugal’s cork forests. Frightening elephant battles are exploding on the edge of the forest in Sumatra; in the Amazon, ancient remains are helping change our perception of how to value the world’s great forests.

This story of the world-famous Lipizzaner stallions focuses on the bond that develops between the horses and their caregivers, beginning at the moment of their birth and culminating in the perfect harmony between horse and rider demonstrated at the famous Spanish Riding School in Vienna, Austria. Their carefully choreographed movements were originally developed for the training of war horses; only the strongest and most athletic horses qualified. The Lipizzaner stallion is bred for its courage, strength and character, but the horse is also gentle, sensitive, and exceptionally responsive to praise.

Home – Travel deep into the wild to take a fresh look at humankind’s relationship to the big animals that live alongside us. From cuddling baby pandas to avoiding man-eating tigers, Dr. M. Sanjayan investigates our changing relationships with the wilderness. The severe peril of extraordinary animals and their habitats is ever-present, but Sanjayan focuses on the powerful stories that prove animals and humans can thrive side by side. It’s a new kind of wild, but one on which we all depend. Plains – Explore the giant herds that roam the wild grasslands of the plains. Home to the greatest gathering of animal life on the planet, they are also increasingly our bread basket – and among the most endangered places on Earth. Dr. Sanjayan follows a unique elephant conservation project in South Africa and tracks the prairies to see how Americans are saving their most-endangered mammal. His journey uncovers a vital new understanding about how both humans and predators can help the animals found on the plains.

Science Night for Jan. 28th goes to a penguin nesting ground, looks at why sink holes occur and examines what bones found in Ben Franklin’s home actually mean.

Nature Penguin Post Office at 7 pm
In the heart of the Antarctic Peninsula there’s a post office surrounded by jaw-dropping scenery and 3,000 gentoo penguins. Every summer, as staff put stamps on postcards, the penguins return from their fishing grounds to their breeding grounds, trek nearly two miles across sea ice and snow, rush to find a partner, build a nest, lay eggs and protect them from predators, and finally get down to the task of raising their young. We see their four-month drama unfold as cruise ships come and go, bringing tourists to buy postcards and photograph penguins — the backdrop to the penguins’ lives.

NOVA Sink Holes at 8 pm
In Tampa, Florida, in February 2013, a giant hole in the ground opened up and swallowed half a house, killing 36 year-old Jeffrey Bush as he slept in his bedroom. A month later, a golfer in Illinois survived an 18-foot fall when the 14th hole caved in beneath his feet. Both were victims of sinkholes-a notorious worldwide hazard that lurks wherever limestone bedrock is found. Filled with compelling eyewitness video of collapsing sinkholes and authoritative science from expert geologists, NOVA investigates what it’s like to have your world vanish beneath your feet.

Secrets of the Dead Ben Franklin’s Bones at 9 pm
When skeletal remains of at least 10 people, including several infants, turned up in the basement of Benjamin Franklin’s British residence, people wondered if the Founding Father might have had a much darker side, as the bones had been meticulously cut and drilled. Franklin was aware of the bodies in his basement, but they weren’t the victims of violent acts. Rather, they were used for the purposes of an illegal anatomy school that helped shaped modern medicine.

Nature Dogs That Changed the World Part 2 at 7 pm
Some working dogs are able to use their skills to perform tasks they were bred for; there are still jobs today for herders, hunters and guard dogs. But as we multiply and transform the many breeds of dogs, honing their looks and their sizes, we also change our relationship with them, and theirs with us. How can we learn to cope with the hard-wired instincts of our pets, and what roles can they play in a world their ancestors would hardly recognize?

NOVA Sunken Ship Rescue at 8 pm
NOVA follows the epic operation to secure, raise and salvage the Costa Concordia cruise ship, which ran aground and tragically capsized off the coast of Italy on January 13th 2012, killing 32 passengers. Moving the ship – which stretches the length of three football fields, weighs over 114,000 tons and lies half submerged on the site of a protected reef with a 50-meter long hole in its hull – from its precarious perch on the edge of a 60 meter high underwater cliff will be a huge technical and logistical challenge. Now, NOVA joins a team of more than 500 divers and engineers working around the clock as they attempt the biggest ship recovery project in history.

Nazi Mega Weapons The SS at 9 pmAs Hitler’s power grows within Nazi Germany, so does that of the SS. From its humble beginnings as Hitler’s personal body guard, the SS under the leadership of Heinrich Himmler becomes a terrifying cult that engineers Hitler’s vision for a new Germany. By the start of the war, the SS holds sway in politics, police and security and is responsible for the creation of the concentration camps. Its power, influence and terror spread with the creation of a military wing: the Waffen SS. By the end of the war, the SS has grown into a machine that controls of every aspect of the Third Reich and brutally disposes of any opposition to Hitler.

Science Night for January 14th explores the world of dogs, looks at subatomic particles and goes inside Hitler’s command complex.
Nature Dogs That Changed The World, Pt. 1 at 7 pm
From the tiniest Chihuahua to the largest St. Bernard, all dogs claim the wolf as their ancestor. Using DNA analysis and other research, scientists have now pieced together the puzzle of canine evolution, creating a fascinating picture of some of the essential dogs vital to the canine population. Part one chronicles the evolution of dogs and how they infiltrated human society. Part 2 will air on Jan. 21st.

Nova Big Bang Machine at 8 pm
On July 4, 2012, scientists at the giant atom smashing facility at CERN announced the discovery of a subatomic particle that seems like a tantalizingly close match to the elusive Higgs Boson, thought to be responsible for giving all the stuff in the universe its mass. Since it was first proposed nearly fifty years ago, the Higgs has been the holy grail of particle physicists: if they can find it, it will validate the “standard model” that underlies all of modern physics. CERN’s scientists are still scrutinizing the results from July to see how well they fit the Higgs prediction. If the data conceals surprises, they could upend much of what we thought we knew about the particles and forces that make up our universe.

Nazi Mega Weapons The Wolf’s Lair at 9 pm
As European countries fall like dominoes to the all-conquering German armies, Hitler becomes convinced of his own military genius. He plans to invade Russia and orders the construction of a huge, heavily protected command complex of bunkers and buildings named the Wolf’s Lair. But as he isolates himself in his concrete city, the war begins to slip from his grasp and a conspiracy is hatched to make the secret base his tomb.

Science Night for January 7th features a trip to France, a look at drones and a look at one of Hitler’s most dangerous weapons.

Nature Wild France at 7pm Wednesday
For most, a trip to France includes fine food, local wines, beautiful cities and celebrated culture of all kinds. This is a trip of a different sort altogether, featuring the unexpected flora and fauna of the country, both great and small. Journeying from the Pyrenees to the Alps, all around the mainland and farther on to Corsica, it is the story of the wild side of France. Breathtaking photography reveals wolves, wild boar and even bears living among France’s many mountains, valleys and forests.

Nova Rise of the Drones at 8 pm Wednesday
Meet a new breed of flying robots, from tiny swarming vehicles to giant unmanned planes.

Nazi Mega Weapons V1: Hitler’s Vengeance Missile at 8 pm Wednesday
In retaliation for devastating Allied bombing raids on German cities, Hitler orders the development of a groundbreaking weapon. This is the story of one of the most ambitious projects of the Third Reich: Hitler’s Vengeance weapon, the V1. Though it was ready too late to make a difference to the outcome of the war, its legacy is the cruise missile – a weapon that changed the face of war forever.

Every Wednesday on KLRU is Science Night. Don’t miss this week’s programming beginning at 7 pm!

Nature The HimalayasThe Himalayan mountain system is the planet’s highest and home to the world’s highest peaks. Nature explores the diversity of wildlife and habitats of this mountain chain starring the mysterious snow leopard.

Carved from 100 million pounds of stone, soaring effortlessly atop a spiderweb of masonry, Gothic cathedrals are marvels of human achievement and artistry. But how did medieval builders reach such spectacular heights? Consuming the labor of entire towns, sometimes taking 100 years to build, these architectural marvels were crafted from just hand tools and stone. Many now teeter on the brink of catastrophic collapse. To save them, an international team of engineers, architects, art historians and computer scientists searches the naves, bays, and bell towers for clues to how the dream of these heavenly temples on earth came true. NOVA’s teams perform hands-on experiments to investigate and reveal the architectural secrets that the cathedral builders used to erect their soaring, glass-filled walls. This program reveals the hidden formulas, drawn from the pages of the Bible itself, that drove medieval builders ever upward.

The Duomo in Florence is a towering masterpiece of Renaissance ingenuity and an enduring source of mystery. A team of U.S. master bricklayers help build a unique experimental “mini-Duomo” using period tools and techniques. Will it stay intact during the final precarious stages of closing over the top of the dome?